New Leadership for Student Learning an Accountability

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NEW LEADERSHIP FOR STUDENT LEARNING AND ACCOUNTABILITY P RINCIPLES 1 The primary responsibility for achieving excellence falls on colleges and universities themselves. Accrediting organizations have played a significant role in advancing the assessment of learning outcomes and must continue to do so while encouraging institutions to set the highest possible standards. Philanthropic organizations, scholarly and professional associations, honorary societies, and others concerned with higher education also have a responsibility to encourage, indeed to insist upon, systematic improvement. Governments, state and federal, and governing boards also share the responsibility to support the drive for high standards and continuous improvement in higher education. Within this context of shared responsibility, however, colleges and universities must themselves take the lead in seeing that American higher education maintains its position of global leadership. 2 To that end, each college and university (and major divisions, schools, and programs within them) should develop ambitious, specific, and clearly stated goals for student learning appropriate to its mission, resources, tradition, student body, and community setting. Many accrediting bodies already require setting such goals, and the importance of doing so should be communicated widely. While these educational goals will vary from institution to institution, they should include the enrichment of both individual lives and our democratic society as a whole through the study of science, social science, the humanities, and the arts. By setting clear and ambitious goals, each institution can determine and communicate how it can best contribute to the realization of the potential of all its students. 3 Each college and university should gather evidence about how well students in various programs are achieving learning goals across the curriculum and about the ability of its graduates to succeed in a challenging and rapidly changing world. The evidence gathered through this process should be used by each institution and its faculty to develop coherent, effective strategies for educational improvement. Accrediting organizations should likewise evaluate institutions by their performance in accord with institutional goals and develop consistent strategies for summarizing and making public their findings. 2
A STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES, COMMITMENTS TO ACTION 4 Each college and university should provide information about its basic characteristics, clearly communicate its educational mission, and describe its strategies for achieving its educational goals and their effectiveness. Both applicants and enrolled students, among others, need to understand the educational mission and goals as well as how broadly and deeply students are learning with respect to them. Hence, in addition to basic data about an institution, students and others should have access to an easily intelligible summary of conclusions drawn from evidence about student learning and a clear description of the process of continuous improvement on a campus. Such information and evidence will help the public learn more about the multiple aims of college study and about campus priorities for strengthening learning. And it will enable the faculty and staff, in partnership, to focus on shared goals for strengthening the quality of student attainment. 5 Understanding that the federal government has a responsibility to see that its funds are properly used, we recognize the importance of its careful monitoring of expenditures of its funds and its reliance on independent accrediting organizations to encourage systematic improvement of educational results. Within this context, we strongly endorse the principle that quality standards must be set and met by institutions themselves and not by external agencies. At the same time, we also call for continued efforts to reduce the costs and distractions imposed by unproductive governmental regulation. 6 As educational associations, we are commited to high standards for our institutions of higher education and their students. To achieve this new configuration of American higher education with its emphasis on transparency and accountability, colleges and universities will need ongoing support from governmental agencies, philanthropic foundations, corporations, and private donors. We will make every effort to demonstrate that such support results in increased learning, more creative and adaptable graduates, and a stronger competitive situation for the country as a whole. Quality standards must be set and met by institutions themselves and not by external agencies. 3
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New Leadership for Student Learning an Accountability

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